Add Xelement in existing XDocument in C#

Question

I have XML with details. I want to copy the entire <Details> node and create updated <Details> node with the exact same attribute.

My XML looks like this:

<root>        
    <Details>
        <A.EMPLID>0000177008</A.EMPLID>
            <G.LAST_NAME>Huziak-Clark</G.LAST_NAME>
            <G.FIRST_NAME>Tracy</G.FIRST_NAME>      
    </Details>      
</root>

I would like to create a new node like this

<root>        
    <Details>
            <A.EMPLID>0000177008</A.EMPLID>
            <G.LAST_NAME>Huziak-Clark</G.LAST_NAME>
            <G.FIRST_NAME>Tracy</G.FIRST_NAME>      
    </Details>  
    <Newdetails>
        <Details>
            <A.EMPLID>0000177008</A.EMPLID>
            <G.LAST_NAME>Huziak-Clark</G.LAST_NAME>
            <G.FIRST_NAME>Tracy</G.FIRST_NAME>      
        </Details>  
    </Newdetails>
</root>

I have used XElement like this, but it is just adding <NewDeatils/> node in XDocument but not remaining nodes.

foreach(XElement e in XDocument.Descendants("Details"))
{
     XDocument.Root.Element.Add("NewDetails",XElement("Deatils");
}

How to select the entire XElement and append it under <Newdetails> node?

Thanks!

Answer 1

First, load the file and get all Descendants named "Details".

var file = @"XMLFile.xml";
var doc = XDocument.Load(file);
var details = doc.Root.Descendants().Where(x => x.Name == "Details");

This gives you a collection of Details nodes, in your example file only one. Then I'd iterate through them, and for each of them create a new XElemen named NewDetails and add the existing element as a child.

Note here that I'm getting the details.Count() before the loop and using it as the limit. If you did a foreach instead, this will turn into an infinite loop so be careful.

var count = details.Count();
for (var i = 0; i < count; i++)
{
    var newDetails = new XElement("NewDetails");
    newDetails.Add(details);
    doc.Root.Add(newDetails);
}

Save it to confirm results.

var fileNew = @"XMLFile2.xml";
doc.Save(fileNew);

Here's the file before and after adding the node:

BEFORE:

AFTER: